Summer and Spring....Life and Death.....

This post is for the meme Seasonal Celebration that Donna of Gardens Eye View is hosting, and Nature Notes that Rambling Woods is hosting.

Summer and Spring is both here at the same time. The temperature shoots up to about eighty or ninety degree Fahrenheit (27 to 32 degree C). Dark ominous clouds gather at the horizon. Rains pour out in bucket loads, drenching the earth. Temperature drops below fifty degree Fahrenheit (below 10 degree C). Mother Nature is very confused this year; she is vacillating about whether spring should continue or summer should come.

I am cowering and whimpering in fear about the climate change and its eminent danger, but the plants are dancing in glee. They are slurping up all the rain water like thirsty dogs and then rising upward to embrace and kiss the sun. Weeds are having a field day. I declared a war on them, one day; got drenched in green sap as I pulled, maimed and killed the weeds, but accepted defeat soon. Where do all these weeds come from, like an army of fire ants?

So, summer is a time for me to rejoice as much as in birth, life and beauty as in death. The potato plants and Jerusalem Artichokes have grown like jungles. The Asparagus have developed such big fan of fern-like leaves. Lettuces, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, onion, garlic, potatoes, cabbages, collards, radish, turnips, beans are thriving. All the seedlings are developing strong limbs. Summer is the time to work around in the garden, and when hungry, snack on the juicy strawberries and luscious snap-peas. The blueberry plants are full of blue-berries; I have covered them up in fine deer-resistant mesh in the hope of protecting the berries from the birds. The red strawberries are peeking out, from here and there, in the bush. The wild raspberries are indeed growing wild. I am now waiting eagerly to pick my first watermelon as I have planted six watermelon plants. the birds are building nests and chirping loudly. The squirrels are active. The chipmunks are back, dashing here and there.

I am already having much of the lunch and dinner by picking either salad greens or other greens, onions, garlic scape and peas from the garden. I can't wait to harvest more of the other vegetables, and pick more berries.

The seedlings from Donna's bee-garden seed packet is also growing up fast. The flower garden is in full swing; the rose bushes are covered in roses; gaillardia, sages, foxgloves and lupine, dianthus and saxifrages are profusely blooming; many of the other plants like lily-of-the-valley and other bulbs have spent flowering; now their green leaves are soaking up all the energy to bloom again next year. Many of the other plants are full of buds to be blooming soon.

Amidst all these beauties and happiness lurk some disappointment and sadness. The American Melon seeds have not produced any seedlings. Perhaps I need to sow more seeds. I feel immense pain and sadness in pulling out the weeds. After all, they are life forms and I am killing them because they are happen to be growing in human beings defined vegetable and flower beds. The bees are also absolutely absent this year. I am really worried. Last year also, this time, the air was buzzing with wasps and bees. I had to tread carefully on the ground as the bees would hover above the low-creeping ground flowers. Not only bees, but even the wasps are hardly there, this year. I can count how many I am seeing.

Summer is also the time of hard work and self-restraint. Almost every day, I have to do some kind of work in the garden -- clear a patch, dig it and make it ready, plant something, provide fertilizer-food, arrange, weed, hill up the potatoes, look for pest attack, trim and the list continues. As I visit the various garden-centers, a favorite summer past-time, I control myself from buying plants; they are just as enticing as all the candies, ice-creams and cakes. It is also the time to experiment growing pineapples in water.

Summer is also the time to sit in the patio in the twilight, contemplate and watch the birds fly to their nests. It is the time to go out in the dark of the night, with a flashlight, to catch the slugs and snails from ravaging the plants and get immersed in the musical cacophony of the crickets. It is the time to play in the soil and observe its microcosm -- the various ground spiders running around with its eggs, the earthworms wiggling, the ants making lines and nests and other insects scurrying around. It is also the time to already start making plans for the fall-garden and growing things during the fall and the winter, about how much money to save over the year to buy certain plants in the coming years, grow and store food for the winter and above all spend time with friends and families, vacationing, visiting and barbecuing.

Summer is indeed that time of the year when there are so many things to do that one blog-post will not be enough. Thank You The Long Winters of NJ for making me welcome, enjoy, endure the heat and appreciate the long days of summer.